Kayla Ritchie
Pronouns: she/her
INDIVIDUAL THERAPY
$160 / 50-minute session
LMHCA
“Whether we learn how to love ourselves and others will depend on the presence of a loving environment. Self-love cannot flourish in isolation.” - bell hooks
I believe that therapy is a process of learning to soften, an unfolding that occurs in a space of trust, warmth, and genuine invitation into the unknown. Many of us learn early on that our belonging in this world depends on our ability to banish aspects of ourselves that cannot be safely held by others. We skillfully fold and shrink ourselves into the shapes that allow us to survive, sometimes with great reward for doing so, but find that our deepest longings go unmentioned and unmet. I am here to hold space for those parts which are too big, too unbearable to be held alone, so that my clients can expand in ways that help them contact their feelings, connect to their desires, and begin to find a home in the world.
Many of the people I work with are individuals who are living with trauma, both in their past and present, and who experience the most profound impact of this trauma in their sense of identity and relationships with others, often in the form of anxiety, depression, grief, and isolation. I work particularly well with people employed in the helping professions, or those who find themselves in caretaking roles in their relationships, and the issues that such roles often entail - burnout, perfectionism, over-performing, shame and self-worth, and the struggle to create boundaries. I’m also passionate about working with men who experience issues related to their own masculinity, and whose relationships are thwarted by the expectations of the roles set out for them.
My time working with individuals in inpatient care and with survivors of extreme relationship violence has made me especially sensitive to the ways in which systemic oppression ongoingly traumatizes the human person. I make it a priority to engage with each person’s healing in full view of the greater context of the existential threats that we face, both as individuals and as a species.
I developed my therapeutic approach within an existential and phenomenological framework. This means that my work is centered on presence, embodied meaning, and relationship. I incorporate elements of Motivational Interviewing, Internal Family Systems, Focusing, and imaginal and psychodramatic techniques into my work, and have been influenced by the work of Carl Jung, Eugene Gendlin, Karen Maroda, bell hooks, and both Carl and Fred Rogers. I tend to be playful, compassionate, and direct in session, and try to balance the inherent seriousness of the work with tender appreciation for the lightness in us all.
I was born in Seattle, and have lived here for most of my life. I graduated from the University of Washington with a BS in Neurobiology and General Biology, minoring in Philosophy, and went on to do neuroscience research for several years. Within my own therapeutic work, I eventually realized that what brought me alive about brains was actually the person in them. I earned my Master of Arts in Existential and Phenomenological Psychology from Seattle University. I’m a lifelong lover of art and animals. I spend much of my spare time birdwatching, making art or music, playing tabletop roleplaying games, watching movies, and reading and discussing philosophy with loved ones.
INDIVIDUAL THERAPY
$160 / 50-minute session
kayla@selfspaceseattle.com